There's a number of steps a finished video game needs to go through before it lands in your home. The most fearsome of those steps for any developer is the certification process.
In short: any game needs to be compliant with the rules of the hardware that runs it. Whether we're talking about Nintendo, PlayStation, or Xbox, there's a rigorous testing process to make sure everything plays nice together. This covers elements as inconsequential as how error messages look and as significant as how the game cooperates (or doesn't) with a console's cloud-save features.
Even in the 1990s, the cert process was involved and frequently meant lots of back and forth between a game's developer and publisher. And, as this new video from GameHut demonstrates, some of the weirdest and well-remembered video game Easter eggs -- such as one for Sonic 3D Blast that unlocks a level select screen by hitting the game's cartridge -- were actually cert cheats.
GameHut is the work of Jon Burton, founder of TT Games (the studio behind Lego games) and an industry veteran. Here, he explains the how and why of using a stage select cheat to fool the certification team at Sega.
Topics Gaming
